This UK town is selling homes for less than $2

There’s not much you can get for a gold coin these days – a few lollies, a bottle of water, a scratchie – but this town south of Manchester in the UK is offering the chance to own your own home for a measly $1.75 (£1).

At a time when the median house price across Australia is $679,100, lucky locals in Stoke-on-Trent can get on the property ladder for the kind of coin you’d find down the back of the couch.

Stoke-on-Trent city council has bought 25 houses in the area of Hanley, mimicking a successful 2013 scheme to bring empty properties back into use and increase the number of homeowners.

The latest scheme, which kicked off today, saw the council buy $2.6 million (£1.5 million) worth of privately-owned properties from absentee landlords, with plans to refurbish them.

Buyers can purchase one of the properties for $1.75 and then take out a $104,000 (£60,000) loan to be repaid over 15 years, before then becoming the outright owner of the property.

That loan is predicted to cover the cost of the home as well as the renovation, meaning that instead of being stuck with a mortgage, homeowners agree to take out the loan to cover the refurb costs.

An historic warehouse building sits alongside a canal in an industrial area of the Potteries, Stoke-on-Trent. Image: melaniekjones / iStock

How do you know if you qualify?

Applicants must have been in continuous work for at least a year to qualify for the scheme, and live or work in the city or have family living in the Potteries.

There is also the condition that applicants have a maximum income of $47,000 (£27,000)-a-year if single, up to $57,000 (£33,000) if single with children, up to $94,000 (£54,000) for a couple, or a maximum of $104,000 (£60,000) for a two-parent family.

Randy Conteh, Stoke's council’s cabinet member for housing, communities and safer city, told The Telegraph: "The project... not only enables hardworking people on modest salaries to buy homes they would not otherwise be able to afford, it helps to regenerate rundown parts of the city – adding to a sense of community for residents and helping to tackle social issues."